June Mastery Challenge Round-Up: Jam

June is over (how this year is speeding by!) and so it’s time to put another skill to bed in our Mastery Challenge. This month, we focused on jam making and more than 170 of you reported in that you’d made a batch of jam (and some of you made many, many more than a single batch).

Starring jam ingredients included apricot, bacon, berries of all shapes and sizes, black currants, cantaloupe, calamansi, carrots, cherries (both sweet and tart), figs, grapes, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, red onion, rhubarb, tomato, violets, and one lonely batch of watermelon rind jam. Strawberries were the very most popular ingredient this month, which makes sense since they are in season throughout much of the country during June.

One of the things I enjoy is seeing how deeply people are digging into each month’s challenge. Since jam making is a skill many existing preservers already know and use, I was hoping that it might lead to further exploration of unfamiliar styles of jam. I think both these graphics bear that out.

Up above, you can see that the majority of participants made more than one batch of jam. And judging from this second image, it looks like lots of people played with batch sizes and styles of preserving. I am entirely delighted.

2 Responses to June Mastery Challenge Round-Up: Jam

Making jam is such a pleasure. I am always excited to have found a way to capture the best of a season, and then savor, my work later in the year. Sharing all this goodness with others who enjoy homemade jam is nothing short of intoxicating! Thank you for bringing us all together to share our jamming experiences.

I love the way you posted the results! Fun to see what everyone made and to be able to click on the ones you want to make in the future to save the recipe? Thanks for all your work on this project. We are having a wonderful time under your tutelage!! Jill in Pasadena, CA